The present invention relates to a teaching aid for use in understanding and visualizing calculus concepts and specifically to a teaching aid adapted to aid students in understanding and visualizing the mathematical concept of the first derivative in calculus.
In calculus, the derivative is a measurement of how a function changes when the values of its inputs change. The derivative of a function at a chosen input value describes the best linear approximation of the function near that particular input value. For a real-valued function of a single real variable, the derivative of a point equals the slope of the tangent line to the graph of the function at that point.
Differentiation is a method used to compute the rate at which a quantity, y, changes with respect to the change in another quantity, x, upon which it is dependent. This rate of change is called the derivative of y with respect to x. The dependency of the variable y on x means that it is a function of x, which is represented by the variable f(x). Therefore, if x and y are real numbers, and if the graph of y is plotted against x, the derivative measures the slope of tangent lines to this graph at each point.
In teaching mathematical concepts, it is often helpful for students to utilize a visual model in order to better understand these concepts. For example, to better visualize the concept of derivatives, it is often helpful to graphically display the curve of a simple function. It has been found that students often have difficulty visualizing such concepts, and therefore have difficulty in understanding and solving such problems. Accordingly, the graphical representation of such concepts aids in the students learning.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a calculus teaching aid for modeling the determination of a first derivative in order to assist students in visualizing the concept of the first derivative. It is a further object of the present invention to provide such an aid that can be adapted to show a variety of different models. Yet another object is to provide an aid comprising a plurality of different indicia configured to represent the various characteristics of the model. A further object of the present invention is to provide such an aid that is relatively simple in its construction yet which greatly enhances a student's ability to understand and visualize the concepts necessary to understand the various aspects of the first derivative.